This invention relates to a method for sensing vibration on packaged material during transport between known destinations.
It is known to take measurements of a vehicle as it is driven over a road surface. Accelerometers have been placed on the vehicle at such locations as the axial shaft or wheel to monitor the vibration applied to the vehicle. The information gathered by the accelerometers are later imputed into a road simulator to measure vibrations applied to a test vehicle. It is further known to measure the quality of pavement surfaces as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,243 by mounting an amplitude modulated laser scanning system to a motor vehicle which scans the pavement surface as the motor vehicle travels over it. Although this profile information can be used to determine the quality of the pavement surface and its affect on the vehicle, there is no system or method that provides a means of testing the packaged material that is transported by the vehicle from one known starting point to a known destination. A manufacturer of packaged material does not get adequate information of the quality of his packaging from current vehicular road simulators. As a result, the manufacturer generally resorts to shaker tables to test the quality of the packaging of his material.
Shaker tables are very capable of generating various directional vibrations. The industry has seen cam driven, single axis and other multi-axis devices built as an attempt to duplicate real world input. The result of these machines have been mixed, and in most cases give a false representation of the real world. Data acquisition has been limited with no comprehension of the physics and engineering mechanics of truck suspensions. The data that has been collected to date does not comprehend the weight of the load and suspension types. Truck suspensions are sensitive to the weight in hauling. A truck having a 40,000 lb. load will ride much gentler than when carrying empty. The shaker tests need to correlate with the truck weight distribution. The other downfall of current testing is that the packaging manufacturer has no intuitive feel between the test and the real world. This disjointed interpretation usually will cause over or under design scenarios in packaging and will increase the cost of the packaging. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a mobile test facility which focuses on data collection and real world interpretation with the physics and engineering mechanics in mind which more realistically measures the effects of the transport of the packaged material from one location to another.
The present invention provides a mobile test facility and procedure for providing real world testing of packaged material during shipment from one location to its final destination. The procedure includes acquiring one or multiple units of packaged material from the customer and instrumenting the packaged material for reading acceleration and/or strain in multiple directions. The unit of packaged material is then loaded onto the. truck bed of the mobile test facility. The remainder of the truck bed is filled with weighted material that represents and simulates the actual units of packaged material. Visual cameras are set directed at points of interest within the trailer. Monitors lie within the truck cab for visual observation and recording. The mobile test facility is further instrumented to determined the road profile during the test. The mobile test facility is then driven the actual route from originating location to final destination point. During the actual route data is recorded of any movement of the actual unit of material. Upon completion of driving the actual route, the data is processed to provide both visual and analog data to the customer.
Other objects, advantages and applications of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art when the following description of the best mode contemplated for practicing the invention is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.